Date: April 27, 2025
Author: Madison Blake

I don’t know if this counts as a confession, but it’s something that’s been weighing on me for a while. Why are so many people on the internet so cruel to those who are just starting out?

I remember being 19, fresh out of high school in 2018, wide-eyed and excited about joining all these online spaces. I genuinely thought the internet was mostly full of fun communities and cool people. I was polite, careful not to be weird or invasive, just happy to meet new friends.

But it didn’t take long before I realized not everyone had good intentions. Some people acted super friendly in the beginning — complimenting me, welcoming me — and then, out of nowhere, they would flip. They would mess with my emotions, gaslight me, make me feel like some kind of joke. At the time, I didn’t even have the words to understand what was happening. It just felt confusing and awful.

Now that I’m older, I see how much that period messed with my sense of trust. I never went online trying to cause problems. I just wanted to connect. It’s heartbreaking how easily some people will chew up someone’s innocence for fun.

I guess my question is: why does it have to be like that?